Ron returns to Berri factory floor

By the time the landmark closed in 2010 amid tough financial conditions brought about by the drought and industry changes, Ron had clocked up 31 years.

He was almost as much of an institution as the century-old factory and one of more than 100 employees left out of work.

"I was probably going to work here 'til I retired and then it was like, there was nothing to get up for in the morning," Ron remembered.

Today the factory has the promise of a new lease of life, about being bought from National Foods by diamond industrial tool maker Syntec with the help of a $1.42 million Riverland Sustainable Futures Fund.

The company is relocating its main production facility from China to Berri, in a move which will initially create 12 local jobs.

It seems fitting that one of those has already been offered to Ron.

"I'm more positive now, because I have a job and that's the main thing, to be able to pay your bills, I'm hoping to work out here 'til I retire now," he said.

Right person in the right place

Standing at the entrance to the factory, Ron recounts how he secured a part-time position as caretaker at the site shortly after the facility closed.

It was in that capacity that he met up with the new owners and was offered a job.

"They asked if I would like a full-time job here and I said, yes I would," Ron said.

"I'm looking forward to working back here, actually, to tell the truth."

The manufacturing operation will signal a new start for the factory, which has operated under a number of labels including Berri Fruit Juices, Berrivale, Berri Ltd and National Foods.

When Ron first started work at the facility he was stacking boxes and operating juice lines.

"I was at work one night and the leading hand didn't show up, so they made me leading hand," he said.

The switch away from manual procedures to automated systems was one of the biggest changes in the three decades he worked at the site.

The closure of the McKay Rd plant followed the decision to relocate the Berri Ltd cannery along the Sturt Hwy, costing up to 300 jobs.

Writing on the wall

Ron said workers had been aware that the future was not secure.

"People knew it was going to happen, it was like a whisper but management said 'it's not going to happen' but people seemed to know, and a lot of them left," he said.

"Everyone knew it was coming, it just happened a bit quicker than we thought."

For Ron, a husband and father of four children, the future is now looking brighter.

"It seemed like it was going to be here forever, it had been here for a hundred years or so," he said.

"But things change, and transport costs and whatever, the drought, that all buggered it up.

"I think it's just that you don't know whether things are stable here, places were shutting down that quick... you think it's going to take a lot to get that back, it's going to be hard, but I think we'll come good."